Accused of pumping uranium-laden water to hundreds of customers from a well in Tamworth that three years earlier was ordered closed, Lakes Region Water Co. now faces criminal charges and a class-action lawsuit.
The company, which has about 2,000 customers in the Lakes Region, is mired in legal troubles following a slew of reported violations. In Tamworth last year, investigators filed multiple complaints: The company didn't properly seal its wells, letting in insects and animals; mouse feces littered the top of its water storage tank; and E. coli in one well left the town without drinking water for weeks.
But the criminal charges and class-action lawsuit are based on what began with a 2004 violation, when testing at the company's bedrock well in Tamworth turned up elevated levels of uranium. The state Department of Environmental Services ordered the well closed, and the company assured the state that it had been, with all pipes and electrical connections severed. The company began using a different well to serve Tamworth, and the state took the old well off its sampling schedule.
Three years later, in August 2007, a routine water test found E. coli in the Tamworth well's water. When DES investigators showed up the next day to examine the well, they discovered that bacteria in the water wasn't the only problem: The old well, supposedly out of service, was still being used. And it still had too much uranium.
Though the company shut down the old well last September in the presence of DES officials, the court cases are only beginning. Last week, Lakes Region Water pleaded not guilty to two felony charges: supplying water with illegal levels of uranium and maintaining a well unapproved by the state. The next hearing is scheduled for the end of October.
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